The San Diego Seals are looking to Build Momentum off the biggest Free Agent Signing of the Offseason, with the signing of Dane Dobbie and a great Draft 2021 draft. Head Coach Patrick Merrill has his work cutout for him. It’s not a bad thing, having such a strong group of players to build a team out of. He hammered the 21 man roster out of more than 35 players, creating a very powerful balanced offence that can attack from both sides of the goal.

Counting on a talented returning Transition/defense and a fired up more balanced Offense. The team is not without weak links. Last time this team took the floor, there were many questions going on in the goalie position. If Frank Scigliano is on the top of his game he should be more than capable. The Seals are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with Frank Scigliano who has yet to shine to his full potential. 

That’s what this all comes down to: Winning. Certain players on this team are nearing the end of Their careers, Brodie Merrell, Zach Greer and Dane Dobbie are all near the end of the road playing professional lacrosse. They are all great players, But father time waits for no man. Brodie Merrell, one could say he is the greatest Defensive player of all time. He is now 40 and it would be hard to imagine him playing many more seasons. Zach Greer has already retired once. Dane Dobbie is out to cement his place among the greats with another NLL championship. 

A quick review of the rest of the western Division.

The Calgary Roughnecks are gutted with the losses of Tyson Bell and Dane Dobbie. Curtis Dickson for years has had Dobbie to play with, but he also can’t do it alone. On defense Christian Del Bianco is one of the most talented Goalies in the league but is that enough? Lets face it, the Roughnecks don’t win a lot of games, but they were able to win IMPORTANT Games. They were the team that won ENOUGH games to just make it to the playoffs then win out. But without Dobbie, Dickson’s act of running into traffic and drawing a penalty will be a tired one. I predict the Roughnecks have a record of 5 wins and 13 losses

The Vancouver Warriors have Mitch Jones but the rest of the offense is lacking the firepower to back him up. And the Defense has many holes that even the signing of Garrett Mcintosh will fill. The Warriors picked one of the best Defensive Draft Picks in the last ten years, Reid Bowering. But with so many holes I don’t see much of a chance with this team. I predict the Warriors will have a record of 6 wins and 12 losses.

The Saskatchewan Rush are a team that has been Very good in the past, but they lost a lot of talent since the last time they took the floor. They replaced a lot of that veteran talent with draft picks. The team got a lot younger and more inexperienced. That has seldom bodes well for teams.  I predict the Rush will Finish at a Respectable 7 wins, 11 losses.

The Colorado Mammoth have a hard time against the Seals, and have not done well the past few seasons overall. But with some mediocre drafts the team has not gotten better. I expect the Mammoth will win 9 with 9 losses.

Panther City is the newest kid on the block. Don’t let the funny sounding name fool you. They have some talent but they also have some holes. But they also have a fantastic set of Young Goalies who should be able to pull them out of a jamb. We will see if the offense gives them enough fireworks to win some games. My prediction is Panther City won’t fare as bad as other expansion clubs in their first year, with only one of the previous expansion clubs having a winning record in the past few years. I don’t think it will be enough to break .500 though. Panther City will have a record of 5 wins and 13 losses.

The Seals currently sit in weakened Western Division where they play each team mentioned above 3 times because of a restructured schedule. Coupled with not playing some of the tougher teams in the Eastern Division, Bandits, Thunderbirds, Knighthawks or Swarm this year. The Seals only face 3 teams in the East and should do well against them. Seals could very well finish the year with a record of 15 wins and 3 losses. The real question will be what happens when this team reaches the playoffs. That’s anyone’s guess. But in the West the Seals are the team to beat.